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You are all certainly more than fair weather friends. Last Saturday a lively crowd of DIY enthusiasts, musicians, music lovers, caffeine addicts and even the odd commuter braved the non-stop rain to join the Friends of Ally Pally Station for Sleepers Awake! Unusual name – unusual event. The Friends had been toiling away making six sleeper benches to add to the platforms and wanted to invite everyone to help assemble and fix them into place. Then they had an idea – as they were working with sleepers, they thought Sleepers Awake – the English title of Bach’s cantata no. 40, “Wachtet Auf Ruft Uns Die Stimme.” They asked Stephen Baron to join them on Platform 1 and host a performance workshop where musicians and students alike could come along and play some Bach. The other thing that keeps sleepers awake, of course is coffee, and thus an idea, that one guest, known to all on this site, described as “bonkers, but inspired bonkers”, was born.

We were all surprised when Howard Williams sang his own text to the chorale from Sleepers Awake to rouse the who had come armed with screwdrivers: “Sleepers wake, your station calls you/ To help however most enthrals you.” Armed with coffee, the DIYers (who were not all men!) put together the six new benches. They look as if they have always been there and as the last ones on Platform 2 were being finished, the crowds from the model engineering exhibition at the palace were already sitting on the completed ones, waiting for their trains home. Yes, it rained. Everyone got wet. Everyone had a good time and went home feeling we’d made our neighbourhood that little bit better. In the words of Howard William’s reworking, “Ally Pally’s quite a station/ It sets the tone for all the nation.” We hope you will agree.